Maria Guadiana Interview: Reflection

Sarah

Our interview with Maria Guadiana Saturday morning was truly inspiring. From her involvement with Detroit’s chapter of the Brown Berets to her work out west with United Farm Workers, she has played an active role not only in the Chicano movement, but in education reform as well. Following her father’s legacy she became active early on in the movement. As an empowered young woman growing up in Southwest, Detroit she didn’t necessarily identify with the feminist perspective other leading women in the Chicana movement embodied. Her dedication and passion for the movement seeped through Saturday’s interview and brought a truly remarkable story to life.

Upon setting up in Ms. Guadiana’s living room, I was pleasantly surprised by the ease in which we were able to create an agreeable lighting scheme and interview angle. By adding a clamp light and standing floor lamp the lighting was soft and even. Additionally, the bookshelf behind her couch acted as a simple, non-distracting background. Other than that, she didn’t engage in any distracting behaviors throughout the interview and spoke with a clarity that was easily captured on film.

I was surprised by just how vivid Maria’s memories were and the intricate ways in which she detailed these stories. Professor Cotera’s questions were met with delicate accounts of Maria Guadiana’s life, as she weaved a web of stories and memories to share with us. From previous students’ experience with such interviews I was expecting more of a disconnect between the questions asked and answers that followed, however Ms. Guadiana was exceptionally detailed and enthusiastic in her responses. I believe the energy she shared with us in that room will be clearly evident in her oral history.

As an undergraduate student, I really appreciated the stories she shared about her work at Wayne State Community College and Latino en Marcha. Her dedication to education reform and Detroit’s school system is remarkable, and continues to this day as a social worker. Additionally the connections she made to her father and son throughout the interview captured my attention. The parallels she drew between her father’s legacy and her own, as well as her son’s, is a crucial part of her story. In the future, it might be interesting to sit down with her son and hear about his work as a union activist and leader.

Tom

I am dreading trying to write a Biosketch on Maria. She has seemingly been involved in everything we have spoken about in class, as well as one thousand and one other projects. On the positive side, this, coupled with her incredible memory for names and dates, made for one heck of a story.

Whilst all her experiences as an activist were remarkable, I actually found her opinions on two specific subjects particularly interesting; her identity as a feminist, as well as her opinion of the Crusade for Justice Conferences in Denver.

On her identification as a feminist, Maria explained that she never perceived herself to have the problems that feminism dealt with, and therefore never felt the need to identify as a feminist. She explained that this was a result of her not being raised as a traditional Mexican girl - her parents gave her relative freedom to do as she pleased, and having four brothers, she found herself being treated as ‘one of the boys’.

Having never studied feminism or feminist theory before, I had never necessarily thought of feminism as a reaction to a problem that needs solving, and therefore as non-existent when there is no perceived issue. Rather, I had seen feminism as somewhat inherent and inevitable in the world (without the bad connotations linked to ‘inevitable’). That seems kind of silly in hindsight, but at the same time, I feel like there’s something I’m still missing. I’m looking forward to discussing this with all of you beautifully enlightened classmates, teach me.

The second point of interest was Maria speaking about the Chicano Youth Conferences in Denver. Maria recounted that she had traveled there with the Detroit chapter of the Brown Berets that she had organized, yet felt like an outsider for a number of reasons. Some were geographical; that her group weren't from Denver or the South-West. Others were more ideological; that they weren't militant enough, even Chicano enough. As a result, Maria told us that she didn't really take much from these conferences.

As we know, the idea that these conferences were only attended by people from the S.W is a fallacy. I suppose it is true though that they may have had a distinct S.W flavor given who they were organized by, and who attended. It seems reasonable then that some ideas and beliefs rooted in the Chicano experience of the S.W would become dominant, perhaps casting non-S.W groups to the periphery. As such, whilst we know that the conferences attracted groups from around the country and gave rise to groups like MEChA, Maria’s experience raises important questions about the reality of their national impact.

Overall, this interview was an awesome experience. Maria is a pretty remarkable person. Her commitment to her work is going to make me use one of the most cringe-worthy words in the English language – inspiring. She has been involved in so many different projects - all of them in a selfless manner- that have been instrumental in advancing civil rights in the U.S. If her story doesn't motivate you, not much will.   

Below are some of the pins that Maria has collected.